Maine

The Efficiency Maine Trust offers a broad portfolio of efficiency programs for residential and commercial customers under its well-recognized Efficiency Maine brand. The Trust creates three-year energy efficiency programs, known as a Triennial Plan, which are overseen by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

Their 2017-19 Triennial Plan targets savings between 2.2 and 2.6 percent of retail sales. Efficiency Maine continues to deliver a successful suite of programs, with an emphasis on new heating equipment, including heat pumps. Efficiency Maine also offers a variety of financing products to help residential customers bridge the gap and implement cost-effective measures.

Gov. Paul LePage continues to push for expansion of natural gas infrastructure and supply, believing that this will lower energy costs for consumers. His Public Utilities Commission went so far as to ignore a staff report and recommendations against a tariff on electric customers to pay for new gas pipelines.

The state has seen little improvement in the area of building energy code issues sincethe Maine Uniform Building Energy Code (MUBEC) was largely rendered moot by legislative action in 2013. Worse still, 2015’s legislative session has seen even more initiatives to repeal the building code entirely, including the energy provisions. Despite assurances made to the U.S. Department of Energy in accepting federal funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, or the “stimulus”) that it would commit to updating and enforcing its building energy code, the state has reneged on those commitments with each new attempt to chip away at MUBEC.

2015 program year data as reported to the NEEP EM&V Forum for the Regional Energy Efficiency Database (REED) and E2's Energy Efficiency Jobs in America report. Savings are expressed in gross annual terms.